Wednesday, December 7, 2011

This morning I woke up to an e-mail in my inbox from the federal government stating that we have TTB approval! What a nice way to start the day. This means we can start brewing very soon. Obviously we will not be open quite yet as we currently have no beer to sell, but we will do our best to get that rectified ASAP. Stay tuned for further updates.

Thanks to all who have supported us up until now and we hope to see you soon.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Well for now anyways. We are still waiting on our final approvals but unlike the previous pictures, the taps are now actually pouring, the drainage is complete and the blackboards are up. I am sure we will need a bit of additional decoration and such but here is the finished product.

Monday, October 24, 2011

We finally got all of the faucets and drip trays in place. We had initially planned on a single bank of 20 but settled with 3 banks of 6 for a total of 18. It may seem like a lot but it has always been difficult keeping only 10 around. We like to keep a significant number of styles at any given time. It may take a while to get them all occupied initially but after a bit of time should be fairly manageable. Here are the pics:

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Sorry we haven't updated anything in a while. Between the new job and the brewery I've been awfully busy. We have been doing a great many things, including working on our draft system and a number of test batches, we just didn't have much to post about. Should have some more updates within a short while.

Monday, September 12, 2011

On my way out to meeting up with Eric to go to the OC Brew Ha Ha this past weekend I stopped by the brewery for a few minutes to take care of some things. When I checked the mail I came across a white envelope from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

We have ABC approval!!!

Now we just have to work out some stuff with the California State Board of Equalization and wait for the federal government TTB approval while we add a bit more stuff to the brewery.

Hooray!!!

*Note: the OC Brew Ha Ha was a fantastic event. For those of you from Southern California, it took place at Hidden Valley park which is part of the old Lion Country Safari grounds - a very nice venue with lots of shade trees. Also, one of my very favorite bands, Seedless played at the event so all the better. Thanks go out to the event organizers and to the OC Firefighters' volunteers.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

So we received our ladies' T's (or baby dolls as most refer to them). We went ahead and brought in some color to our monochrome world and got pink, aqua, red, and blue in addition to black and grey. We currently have small, medium and large. All have light grey artwork.

In contrast with the men's T's, it was unanimously suggested that they not get a left chest and rear artwork but instead get a centered chest artwork.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Since we are brewing small batches, we have decided to use food grade plastic conical fermenters. Instead of controlling the temperature of each individually, we will be placing them in a climate controlled room for fermenting. This will room will be for primary and secondary fermentation as well as naturally conditioning and carbonating beer. Its previous life was spent as a floral cooler. FYI it is approximately 14'L x 5'D x 8'H. The HVAC is not installed and the doors are not on yet but here ya go.

Before the header and ceiling panels:

Note my "office" to the right:

After all the panels, but still no doors:

We will be blacking out the glass to prevent light through since the plastic conicals are translucent.

I almost neglected to mention: Eric and John and I went down to Murrietta on July 21 to pick this up - what a nightmare. We were told to bring a 4' x 8' trailer which it did not fit on so we had all these panels and the cooler hanging off and strapped to a little trailer towed behind a Honda Pilot with the large glass doors and the compressor crammed in the back with John while Eric was driving 55 in the slow lane of the 15 fwy...

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

So we went shopping for a sink the other day for the brewery. The normal 3 station sinks used by food service was what we were looking for, but truth be told they are a bit smaller than we needed. We came across this beast and knew it was made just for us. It is still not plumbed yet but already makes life easier.

This doesn't really give you an idea of the size so I took the following picture with Jacqui for reference.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

It has come to my attention that I never shared the fact that we got some t-shirts made nor what they look like etc... here ya go:

We have black, dark heather, light heather or white. The lighter colors have a black design while the darker have a white design. Logo is small on left chest front and large centered on back. Sizes range from Medium to 2XL.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Well, it is starting to resemble a real production brewery (to me anyways). While it is still technically home brew, we brewed our first batch of beer onsite today: A 2/3 barrel batch of Session IPA. For a while now, I have been working on the serving counter and bar so we got them in place today.

I almost forgot to mention, thanks go out to Jacqui, Jon, and Kylie for their help staining those tops and painting that cabinet. We had a family day Thursday working at the Brewery.

Lots of storage in that counter which is good as we need it.

Eric came back from the great white north today (no, not Canadia). It appears that he just spent the last two weeks in a drunken stupor since all he did was visit breweries. The evidence is in the pint glasses he brought back for me. This does not include the significant number he got for himself. By the way thank you very much Eric, it is very appreciated.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Well WE do... and lot's of it. I've been working on the serving bar for for a bit over a week now. It's not quite done, but it's come far enough to show some pics. Although I haven't been posting for a little while we have been busy with that and other stuff, I just haven't had anything that was really worth writing about yet. Here's the pics:

The pictures are a bit deceptive, it is not as small as it looks. To get an idea of the scale, the top is 11' x 2' and 42" from the floor. The smaller side bar is 62" x 18".

It still needs to be stained and sealed, and the cabinet needs a surface finish as well.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Today we went to the ABC and applied for our brewer's license. It was a long meeting, but we got everything taken care of and the application approved so far. While there, we also decided to get our seller's permit since it was only 1 floor up. So far, the experience has been a lot more pleasant than it could have been - all of the people working for the various government agencies have been extremely helpful.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Many thanks to our good friend Manuel, our flooring is complete. He got it done in less than half the time I could have and still did a better job. Thank you so much, we really appreciate all your hard work. Here are some pics.

You may have noticed, the wall is also completely gone. Now it is just time to add a bar and a bit of furnishings. With some help, we also moved the rest of the equipment over on Saturday. We now have beer and the equipment to brew it! Thanks guys!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

So today I finished removing the carpet and began demolition of the wall. I think this room is going to be just about the right size for a serving bar and a few chairs as well. Here are a few pictures. I would have cleaned up the mess but I don't have a trash can yet (you can blame Eric - I do).

On another note, the other day I ordered some t-shirts and stickers with our logo. Today, we received some decals for our junk.